foldable

There's no mistaking that the selling feature of foldable phones like the Galaxy Z Flip is, of course, their foldable screen. Their exorbitant price tags, however, might make many think they're getting that on top of your usual premium flagship features. That may be true for things like processors and storage but something has to give somewhere. And when it comes to compromises, that one that almost always gets the short end of the stick is the front-facing camera.

Motorola seems to be bent on launching as many phones as it can this year but the real highlight of its new lineup so far is undoubtedly the Razr. You can argue about its practicality and price but it's hard to deny how huge it was in terms of design and even execution. Unsurprisingly, Motorola is reportedly already working on a successor that, from the looks of it, should have been what it launched first.

A foldable display iPhone concept was revealed by iOS Beta News in a video called "iPhone Flip" here in May 2020, and it looks fantastic. It's novel, it'd be surprising and delightful if Apple ever really did reveal such a thing as a real product. But a foldable display on an iPhone - with another display on its back - isn't just unlikely as an Apple product, it's impossible. Apple would never create a device with so many potential avenues for failure.

Today Motorola released the Motorola RAZR software update to Android 10. This is the full version of Android 10, on the device for the first time in full release form. This update allows the user some access to several new features enacted by Motorola, as well as several features only available to Android 10 devices as enabled by Google. Does this update make the device desirable enough to purchase?

The foldable Motorola Razr prompted a few winces with its bleeding-edge price tag when it launched, but now the company will sell you one for $750 - you just have to buy two at the same time. A new buy-one-get-one promotion promises two Razr for the price of one, though there are still some caveats to bear in mind.

DxOMark's verdict on the Galaxy Z Flip phone is out and its message is pretty clear. It's good enough but not what you'd expect from a $1,400 phone. Of course, Samsung never really splurged on the foldable phone's cameras and left it rather ill-equipped to compete with other high-end flagships. The next Galaxy Z Flip might rise up to the challenged by adding another camera and a Samsung patent may reveal how it plans to solve its problem of fitting all of those on a small phone.

The Galaxy Z Flip's raison d'être is obviously its foldable screen. In addition to having an extremely pocketable phone, however, Samsung has been advertising the clamshell's possibilities in mobile photography, allowing for angles and views that would be difficult for rigid rectangular blocks. Of course, all of that flexibility would be moot if the Galaxy Z Flip's cameras are terrible. Fortunately, they're not. Unfortunately, they may not be that great either.

Back when the giants Samsung and Huawei were competing over foldable phones, there were two schools of design that became prevalent last year. It was the Galaxy Fold's "innie" versus the Mate X's "outie". Neither has been completely impervious to accidents but the Huawei Mate X may have been taking too many risks. That may be just one of two reasons why Huawei's next foldable phone might be an innie but it may also have something to do with its cameras.

For all its faults, the first Galaxy Fold did give us a glimpse into one possible future for mobile devices. It is, however, a future that very few could hardly afford. While the Galaxy Z Flip did make the idea of a foldable screen smartphone more accessible, it didn't exactly match the dreams that the Galaxy Fold inspired. Fortunately, there is word of a Galaxy Fold 2 and while it may come with a cheaper price tag compared to its predecessor, its story might not all be that positive.

Samsung sometimes has a tendency to have short term amnesia, forgetting a new product once a newer one gets released. That's even more prominent with "experimental" but also very expensive like the Galaxy Round or even last year's rather controversial Galaxy Fold. This year, Samsung is trying to do well by Galaxy Z Flip owners and is rolling out new features and, based on Samsung's announcement, could just be the start of more Flex Mode compatible apps for the foldable phone.

Two clamshell-style foldable display-toting smartphones were released in the past few months, one from Samsung, the other from Motorola. Both received relatively standard market releases, though both were released in slightly smaller numbers than your average headliner. Now it would appear that Xiaomi wants in on the party, with a rumor springing up about a device with a look that could very easily be mistaken for Samsung's approach.

The first Galaxy Fold was the thing of tech dreams, promising a phone that doubles as a tablet or vice versa. The harsh reality was that it failed to meet expectations, unsurprising for a first-gen product. That leaves plenty of room for a successor to rise up to the challenge but also plenty of opportunities to raise expectations even higher. Based on new leaked details about the Galaxy Fold 2, it could be either or both.